Laurel Banners
by greysnyper
Summary: To be what is natural is to entwine.


There's grey and there's green. The trees grow thinner, but more in number as the road becomes nearly impassable.

"We need to pull over," Gojyo growls.

"You need to shut up and push," is his answer.

Fortunately, it is Hakkai who spots the worn path. Jeep takes a break and the party, five minutes into a quickening downpour, find a homely little cave.

"Wow," Goku kicks about, testing the echo with scuffing boots. "What if a bear lives here, and how are we going to eat?"

"You just answered you're own question, idiot."

"You know, I'll eat the bear after it eats you, kappa."

Sanzo sighs and Hakkai offers an apologetic snicker.

"It's coming down hard," the driver offers, an attempt to save the others through distraction. "There's no lack of rain in these parts."

The dialogue is correct, coming from Hakkai. Hell, even predictable. But currently, and not just exclusive to this afternoon, Sanzo notes something forced in the other's tone. 

Something worn.

It _has_ been raining quite often...

"I suppose I'll get...some wood," Hakkai states, having trouble keeping the fluidity of his words consistent.

God, it annoys Sanzo when everyone fails to speak their mind.

"If you need to get out, than get the hell out," he mutters. "One less voice to disgust me is fine."

Hakkai lets another snicker through, awkward but also understanding. He is the smart one, after all. "I won't be long."

"And you won't be coming back to survivors, either," Sanzo says, turning as Hakkai strolls away from the cave. "My gun has had enough of both of your bitching!"

Perhaps fading into the foggy green and brown forest, Hakkai hears Gojyo call after him as the sprite realizes that the only thing standing between him and Sanzo has just walked out. And Goku makes for a pitiful shield, what with the squirming and the quickness...

Fuck.

It's only a matter of minutes before Sanzo's threats become ignored or forgotten by the dimwits. How unnatural it is for Gojyo and Goku to have so much in common through being idiots, and yet continue to find the most imaginary reasons to bicker. Right now they're ragging over which had the cleanest shoes.

Fuck fuck.

The rain keeps falling and the morons' rough housing leads to Goku nearly stepping on Jeep. The dragon gets annoyed and starts shrieking. Gojyo begins to shout. Sanzo's headache grows and putting bullets into the empty heads of his teammates is not going to kill the pain.

"_Gojyo!_"

"It's not my fault!" shouts the kappa.

"Where are your smokes?"

Gojyo stalls in his attempt to stomp-kick the smaller yokai and gives the Priest a scowl. "For God's sake, get your own, Saint-y. You were the one shopping in the last town!"

He's truly going to develop a twitch. "I'm _not_ asking, you retard!"

"And I'm not giv--"

Goku interrupts, saying, "I don't think I've seen Sanzo smoke all day."

Someone's got a survival gene. To his credit, Gojyo comprehends.

Sanzo catches the pack and steps to the boundary of the shelter, looking out into the woods where the rain keeps falling.

Lighting up, the Priest wonders just how much precipitation this place sees. More rain in the forecast means less driving. They're losing time.

Thunder farther off makes Sanzo think of monsters--not all imaginary. It makes him think of the possibility of yokai being present in this forest. Hakkai has not been out for long, but any length of time away from the sanest of his party seems like three times as long.

Goku is learning new insults every day, and right now he's screaming his latest tag towards Gojyo.

Taking a drag, Sanzo sighs and walks out. He welcomes any bears to this place and wonders if he'll be so lucky. He's been a good servant to the Gods, right?

Sandals testing their grip on slick stones, the Priest ducks his head to keep rain from his precious light. The sound changes to something more familiar to Sanzo. He's reminded of his first temple and the garden. The water falling has that effect and it's no wonder Hakkai would choose this place over the company of the others.

A man can only take so much stupidity. That Sanzo could see it eating at even Hakkai means something.

But it has also been raining a lot, lately, too.

Downpour, and Hakkai had been the only one to steal Sanzo's gun, the weapon slipping from wet fingers to the criminal's reach. Hakkai had also been one of the few to threaten the damn monkey in such a way that it had made Sanzo stop dead. There are times when water streaks down the window of the inns they stay at, and the Priest notices the slight wear in Hakkai's tone. A distance in the stare, before Gojyo's theatrics pull the other back to the present.

Gods, if this is going to be a problem that grows every time the skies open up, it's going to be a real pain in the ass.

He's wandered a good distance, until his fag runs out of use, when Sanzo notices that the darkest part of the sky only takes up one direction. And Sanzo's caught himself following it.

The sounds change, as if the drops collected in the trees are now trying to compensate for the silence of the clouds. There are berries that Sanzo knows to be poisonous, stark against the rest of the setting. A fluttering of wings above him. An unnatural stillness, replacing the birds that flee. The trees spilling their collection of water only makes the quiet more noticeable.

He is not alone.

The gun is neatly tucked inside his robes, and Sanzo slides his gaze across his surroundings. If Hakkai had encountered similar trouble, Sanzo certainly would have heard or felt the effects by now.

No, he has not been noticed.

Each step taken is now careful, wary of making sound. This skill of his keeps Gojyo on his toes when the kappa is talking about Sanzo, supposedly behind the Priest's back. If he leaves the path and...

He almost misses it with his violet eyes, the form on the log. The land dips into a shallow hollow, and is filled with the same tones of ash, green and browns. But it is not the colour of clothing on the form that allows the other to blend into the wilderness, but the artful vines twining around the figure, like a brand of the earth trying to make its claim.

Sanzo's only seen Hakkai in yokai form once before.

Dammit. He doesn't want to be here. He _shouldn't_ be here. The Priest knows well enough to leave himself from personal moments, and certainly everyone (save the monkey) appreciates it.

He'll retrace his steps and surrender again to the path. He'll--

--snap a twig and ruin the fucking plan before it's fully formed.

"Fuck," he murmurs, already planning to pin the blame on Gojyo. Someway, somehow, it's the damn sprite's fault. He's frozen in the shattered calm, eyes fixed on the demon sprawled across the log.

One. Two...

"You don't have to flee," Hakkai speaks, his voice different. It's vaguely similar to what Sanzo expects from Hakkai, but the inflection is changed and the words are clearer. A whisper, loud enough to be a shout. "I'm not dangerous."

Everyone's dangerous, the Sanzo corrects.

Hakkai is slow in sitting up, yet this only creates a grace for him that's inhuman. The sash is not with him, and the shirt unbuttoned. It takes a foggy moment for Sanzo to connect the scar into this connection, likely released as a testament to his condition.

He owes that to his yokai form.

"I'm leaving," Sanzo states, having to call the words across with a mere mortal voice.

Behind Hakkai's damp shoulder, shirt clinging to his back with bits of bark staining the fabric, Sanzo can make out the most authentic of grins.

"I assure you," Sanzo is told, "that you are not intruding. I shouldn't be this way."

Sanzo would agree, but how the other sounds so relaxed comes across as striking. Sanzo needs to trust his team if he is taking them to the Lord of demons, but he should also know them better than this. He is dealing with monsters.

"You're only human," the Priest observes. "It makes sense that you'd need to be let out. Only an idiot wouldn't understand."

Sanzo's quickly comprehending this revelation himself. Hakkai had once been human, and has more self-control than most. To repress and repress the need to just...be. But would Goku have the same needs? The chimp's damn diadem kept breaking but perhaps something more should be done to control it. Sutras aside...

Hakkai is shifting down, likely gathering his discarded clothing and grasping at his own inhibitors with clawed fingers.

"I think it's the rain," he says, flashing a green eye at the Priest. It's the eye that Hakkai had once ripped from his own head, and it's powerful. Sanzo narrows his gaze in return, but then feels the weight of the stare slip off of him. "The rain always does bring out the worst..."

And suddenly, the laurel-wreathed demon is moving. Sanzo follows the leap, feeling a sudden push in his blood upon realizing the speed that Hakkai now possesses. His body urges him to react, but something stronger reminds the Priest that Hakkai would not dare harm him.

They've been through this before and maybe that's the same thought shared by the yokai, as Hakkai gives a bitter grin to Sanzo as they cross paths.

It's a fast exchange, but Sanzo feels cold metal pressed into his hand before he hears the howl of something else inhuman. Hakkai is letting go of Sanzo's wrist and spinning up the path to meet with the two shadows that have dropped from the trees.

Sanzo has been followed.

In demon form, Hakkai is more hands-on with his attacks. In watching, Sanzo starts to believe more firmly in the reputation of the other. To be made a demon after killing a thousand of their kind, it would require skill. And to survive that night...the Gods had been clear about Hakkai's sins. And nobody gets good at sinning without some practise or fate.

A third demon is impaled on long fingers and just as quickly dropped unceremoniously to the ground. Hakkai shakes his bloody fist away from his body, leaving his garments relatively unstained.

Despite the death to his old name, Cho Hakkai still does hate yokai with a passion.

"I can smell others."

Sanzo clears his throat, moving up the path. "You piss me off, do you know that?"

Hakkai shifts, dropping his head and almost shies his gaze away from the Priest. Always subservient, regardless of how far the balance of power has shifted.

The Priest holds out the three inhibitors Hakkai had pressed into his palm with a look of disgust. "I can't hold my gun if I'm taking care of your shit."

Hakkai doesn't need to say anything, as he stares up with changing green eyes to re-accept his accessories.

"I'll draw you a map," Sanzo growls. "The cave is east of here."

The other sighs ruefully. "Is that a hint of something deeper?"

"You think too much into things," Sanzo snaps. "I just want to kill something and I don't need to mistake you for a target."

"My apologies," demon Hakkai bows, leaving the path open for the other. "I'll make sure that the others are still alive."

"With my luck, they will be," Sanzo mutters, turning his back and taking up the rest of the path. He doesn't have to look behind him to know that Hakkai will be reapplying the metal to his ears.

He stops, though.

"Which way did you say you sensed demons?"

An annoyingly chipper voice returns, calling after Sanzo. "Which way do you think?"

Sanzo smirks. "Of course."

-

West.

-

The only reason that bear is not on the supper menu is because Hakkai had intervened.

"That's too much food," he had expressed, catching the other two attempting an ambush which would have likely turned out disastrous. "I found us some edibles."

"You're going to make us vegetarians, aren't you?" Gojyo had whined. The thought almost sent Goku into a panic until Hakkai had brought forth a hare.

"That's not nearly enough for all of us."

"Which is why it would be wonderful for you to catch more."

"I love when you volunteer me for shit," Gojyo mutters.

"It's not volunteering if he makes you," Goku hums. "Why do you smell like blood, Hakkai?"

Gojyo pauses.

"Do I smell like blood?" asks Hakkai, almost too cheerfully confused.

Goku shrugs. "Blood and rain."

Gojyo gives Hakkai a cursive stare before shaking his head. "Your hunger's made you delusional, monkey."

"At least food solves my problems," Goku folds his arms. "You're stupidity is uncurable."

"I'll show you what's uncurable!"

"It's 'incurable'," Hakkai goes ignored.

Sanzo returns two hours later, having run out of bullets. The moment Gojyo opened his mouth to say something about it, Hakkai tosses a small bone across the fire at him.

"Do you mind?!"

"It's a game," whispers the driver to Goku.

"Oh hell," scrambles the little one. "I can win this."

"Don't encourage him!" shrieks Gojyo, raising his arms to block more projectiles.

Sanzo catches a stolen glance from Hakkai, who spares himself a flush by delegating himself as a referee in this new and aggrivating game he's introduced.

The Priest wrings out his damp Sutra and takes heart in the fact that he had rid the world of nine yokai, to make up for the annoyance of the three he is saving.


End file.
